The Court of Appeal of
Rome
acquitted a man who spent 33 years in prison,
wrongly sentenced to life imprisonment
for a triple homicide that occurred in 1991. "It is the end of a nightmare," said an emotional Beniamino Zuncheddu, after the court's decision. drop the charges against him.
The former pastor, 58 years old, had been free since last November 25, when the same court suspended the sentence now ratified after several testimonies demonstrated that the investigation at the time of the events was manipulated by a police officer. .
The triple crime occurred on January 8, 1991, when
Gesuino Fadda, 56, was
shot to death in a sheep pen;
his son Giuseppe, 24;
and his employee Ignazio Pusceddu, 55.
Fadda's son-in-law, Luigi Pinna, 29, was seriously injured and became the only witness to the so-called
Sinnai massacre
, the mountainous area of Cagliari province where the triple homicide took place.
During the trial, the attorney general, Francesco Piantoni,
questioned the credibility
of the testimony of Pinna, who at the time of the events accused Zuncheddu, although he always pleaded innocent.
And in one of the hearings Pinna confessed: 33 years ago, before "identifying the suspects, the police officer who was leading the investigation showed me Zuncheddu's photo and told me that he was the culprit of the massacre. It was like this:
I was wrong
to listen to the wrong person.
From the outset, investigators pointed to disputes between ranchers in the area as the cause of the homicide, in light of some incidents that occurred before the triple crime, in particular the slaughter of some animals, as well as disputes between ranchers.
Zuncheddu, who was 27 years old, was arrested a few days later, when a judicial ordeal began for him that ended last night, after spending almost 33 years in prison.
It is the "greatest judicial error in republican history. Almost 33 years behind bars, 12,000 days of deprivation, suffering, pain, distance from his loved ones and his life," according to Errorigiudiziari.com (Erroresjudiciales.com) , which deals with miscarriages of justice and was present at the appeal process.
“I don't feel hate”
Zuncheddu assured that he has "never" felt "hatred" because "judges make mistakes," but he did feel that
"everything was stolen from him"
after spending more than half of his life in prison.
"I wanted to have a family, build something, be a free citizen like everyone else. 30 years ago I was young, today I am old. They stole everything from me. Now I will rest, at least mentally," he said at a press conference hours after the sentence of acquittal.
"I felt like a little caged bird.
I looked at their faces and asked myself why. Even now I don't understand why," although "I have never felt hatred or anger" because "judges make mistakes," he told the media.
"In prison they always told me: if you repent we will give you freedom. But what was I going to regret if I didn't do anything?
I didn't accept
," he explained, before thanking "the radical party, those around me, to my relatives, to my town, Burcei", whose priest, after the sentence, rang the bells.